Community, business ethics, and global capitalism

American Business Law Journal

Volumn 38, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 215-260

  Mayer, Don ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0039147769     PISSN: 00027766     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-1714.2001.tb00289.x     Document Type: Article

References (196)

1. JEREMY RIFKIN, THE AGE OF ACCESS: THE NEW CULTURE OF HYPERCAPITALISM, WHERE ALL OF LIFE IS A PAID-FOR EXPERIENCE 11-12 (2000).
2. See Andrew Stark, What's Wrong With Business Ethics, HARV. BUS. REV., May/June 1993, at 38. "I suspect that the field of business ethics is largely irrelevant for most managers . . . . The discipline of business ethics has yet to provide much concrete help to managers . . . and even business ethicists sense it." Id.
3. LaRue Tone Hosmer, 5 Years, 20 Issues, 141 Articles, and What?, 6 BUS. ETHICS Q. 325, 341 (1996). "There is a sense of urgency within the recent literature." Id.
4. Id.
5. "Business ethics" and "corporate social responsibility" are not entirely interchangeable terms. Corporate social responsibility is generally understood to encompass not only ethical responsibilities, but legal and ethical responsibilities as well. Thus, the aspect of corporate social responsibility that is distinctively ethical also tends to describe the field of business ethics. See Archie B. Carroll, Social Responsibility, in THE BLACKWELL ENCYCLOPEDIC DICTIONARY OF BUSINESS ETHICS 594 (Patricia H. Werhane & R. Edward Freeman eds., 1997).
6. "Most individuals are concurrently members of multiple communities and, as a consequence, they regularly confront conflicting or competing ethical norms. Coherent communities having social contracts could include one's profession, family, religion, community, employer, nation, business generally, industry, colleagues, peers, and so on." Thomas W. Dunfee, Business Ethics and Extant Social Contracts, 1 BUS. ETHICS. Q. 23, 30 (1991).
7. See Thomas Donaldson & Thomas W. Dunfee, Toward a Unified Conception of Business Ethics: Integrative Social Contracts Theory, 19 ACAD. MGMT. REV. 252 (1994) [hereinafter Donaldson & Dunfee, Unified Conception]. See also THOMAS DONALDSON & THOMAS W. DUNFEE, TIES THAT BIND: A SOCIAL CONTRACTS APPROACH TO BUSINESS ETHICS (1999) [hereinafter TIES THAT BIND].
8. See Thomas Donaldson & Thomas W. Dunfee, Toward a Unified Conception of Business Ethics: Integrative Social Contracts Theory, 19 ACAD. MGMT. REV. 252 (1994) [hereinafter Donaldson & Dunfee, Unified Conception]. See also THOMAS DONALDSON & THOMAS W. DUNFEE, TIES THAT BIND: A SOCIAL CONTRACTS APPROACH TO BUSINESS ETHICS (1999) [hereinafter TIES THAT BIND].
9. Donaldson & Dunfee, Unified Conception, supra note 7, at 262. See also TIES THAT BIND, supra note 7, at 38.
10. Donaldson & Dunfee, Unified Conception, supra note 7, at 262. See also TIES THAT BIND, supra note 7, at 38.
11. Donaldson & Dunfee, Unified Conception, supra note 7, at 262. See also TIES THAT BIND, supra note 7, at 39.
12. Donaldson & Dunfee, Unified Conception, supra note 7, at 262. See also TIES THAT BIND, supra note 7, at 39.
13. See generally Timothy L. Fort, Business as Mediating Institution, 6 BUS. ETHICS Q. 149 (1996); Timothy L. Fort, The Corporation as Mediating Institution: An Efficacious Synthesis of Stakeholder Theory and Corporate Constituency Statutes, 73 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 201 (1997) [hereinafter Fort, Corporation as Mediating Institution]; Timothy L. Fort & James J. Noone, Banded Contracts, Mediating Institutions, and Corporate Governance: A Naturalist Analysis of Contractual Theories of the Firm, 62 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 163 (1999) (of particular interest, given its attention to ISCT); Timothy L. Fort, On Social Psychology, Business Ethics, and Corporate Governance, 10 BUS. ETHICS Q. 725 (2000).
14. See generally Timothy L. Fort, Business as Mediating Institution, 6 BUS. ETHICS Q. 149 (1996); Timothy L. Fort, The Corporation as Mediating Institution: An Efficacious Synthesis of Stakeholder Theory and Corporate Constituency Statutes, 73 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 201 (1997) [hereinafter Fort, Corporation as Mediating Institution]; Timothy L. Fort & James J. Noone, Banded Contracts, Mediating Institutions, and Corporate Governance: A Naturalist Analysis of Contractual Theories of the Firm, 62 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 163 (1999) (of particular interest, given its attention to ISCT); Timothy L. Fort, On Social Psychology, Business Ethics, and Corporate Governance, 10 BUS. ETHICS Q. 725 (2000).
15. See generally Timothy L. Fort, Business as Mediating Institution, 6 BUS. ETHICS Q. 149 (1996); Timothy L. Fort, The Corporation as Mediating Institution: An Efficacious Synthesis of Stakeholder Theory and Corporate Constituency Statutes, 73 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 201 (1997) [hereinafter Fort, Corporation as Mediating Institution]; Timothy L. Fort & James J. Noone, Banded Contracts, Mediating Institutions, and Corporate Governance: A Naturalist Analysis of Contractual Theories of the Firm, 62 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 163 (1999) (of particular interest, given its attention to ISCT); Timothy L. Fort, On Social Psychology, Business Ethics, and Corporate Governance, 10 BUS. ETHICS Q. 725 (2000).
16. See generally Timothy L. Fort, Business as Mediating Institution, 6 BUS. ETHICS Q. 149 (1996); Timothy L. Fort, The Corporation as Mediating Institution: An Efficacious Synthesis of Stakeholder Theory and Corporate Constituency Statutes, 73 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 201 (1997) [hereinafter Fort, Corporation as Mediating Institution]; Timothy L. Fort & James J. Noone, Banded Contracts, Mediating Institutions, and Corporate Governance: A Naturalist Analysis of Contractual Theories of the Firm, 62 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 163 (1999) (of particular interest, given its attention to ISCT); Timothy L. Fort, On Social Psychology, Business Ethics, and Corporate Governance, 10 BUS. ETHICS Q. 725 (2000).
17. Fort, Corporation as Mediating Institution, supra note 10, at 156.
18. TOM CHAPPELL, THE SOUL OF A BUSINESS: MANAGING FOR PROFIT AND THE COMMON GOOD 62 (1993).
19. See Timothy L. Fort, Integrative Social Contract Theory: Integrating ISCT and Mediating Institutions, working paper, presented to the Society for Business Ethics, Aug. 1996 (on file with author).
20. Michael B. Metzger & Dan R. Dalton, Seeing the Elephant: An Organizational Perspective on Corporate Moral Agency, 33 AM. BUS. L.J. 489 (1996).
21. Fort, Corporation as Mediating Institution, supra note 10, at 201.
22. Timothy L. Fort & Cindy A. Schipani, Corporate Governance in a Global Environment: A Search for the Best of All Worlds, 33 VAND. J. TRANSNAT'L L. 829 (2000).
23. See infra notes 40-131 and accompanying text.
24. ALVIN TOFFLER, FUTURE SHOCK (1970). In his remarkably prescient book, Toffler both describes and predicts a rising flood of technological, social, and economic change, and notes the limited capacity for humans to adjust to these changes. In an ever-changing world of rapidly shifting institutions, Toffler predicts that many people will find it difficult to cope. Such a world destabilizes extant communities and replaces them with shorter-lived groupings.
25. RIFKIN, supra note 1. "The selling of the culture in the form of more and more paid-for human activity is quickly leading to a world where pecuniary kinds of human relationships are substituting for traditional social relationships. Imagine a world where virtually every activity outside the confines of family relations is a paid-for experience, a world in which traditional reciprocal obligations and expectations - mediated by feelings of faith, empathy, and solidarity - are replaced by contractual relationships in the form of paid memberships, subscriptions, admissions charges, retainers, and fees." Id. at 9. In a hypercapitalist economy, Rifkin explains, "virtually all of our time is commodified" and "cultural time wanes, leaving humanity with only commercial bonds to hold civilization together." Id. at 10.
26. Donaldson & Dunfee, Unified Conception, supra note 7, at 258. See also TIES THAT BIND, supra note 7, at 28, 31.
27. Donaldson & Dunfee, Unified Conception, supra note 7, at 258. See also TIES THAT BIND, supra note 7, at 28, 31.
28. Donaldson & Dunfee, Umfied Conception, supra note 7, at 258.
29. Id. at 259.
30. Id. (citing Ronald M. Green, When Is "Everyone's Doing It" a Moral Justification?, 1 BUS. ETHICS Q. 75 (1991)). See also TIES THAT BIND, supra note 7, at 13.
31. Id. (citing Ronald M. Green, When Is "Everyone's Doing It" a Moral Justification?, 1 BUS. ETHICS Q. 75 (1991)). See also TIES THAT BIND, supra note 7, at 13.
32. Donaldson & Dunfee, Unified Conception, supra note 7, at 259.
33. Id. at 257. See also TIES THAT BIND, supra note 7, at 33. Any moral calculus used in business must be applicable to an incredibly wide variety of contexts that arise from radically different economic systems. Just as it is impossible to create a general theory of economics without knowing the institutions, history, and culture of a people to whom it will apply, so too one cannot devise a general theory of economic ethics without understanding the types of organizations, people, and transactions to which it will apply. TIES THAT BIND, supra note 7, at 33.
34. Donaldson & Dunfee, Unified Conception, supra note7, at 257-58 (citing A.D. CHANDLER, THE VISIBLE HAND: THE MANAGERIAL REVOLUTION IN AMERICAN BUSINESS (1977)).
35. Donaldson & Dunfee, Unified Conception, supra note7, at 257-58 (citing A.D. CHANDLER, THE VISIBLE HAND: THE MANAGERIAL REVOLUTION IN AMERICAN BUSINESS (1977)).
36. Id. at 258. The discussion about games is strongly reminiscent of Wittgenstein's discussion in Philosophical Investigations. In the Investigations, Wittgenstein makes clear the pointlessness of generating realities from words and language alone. Humans often use words that cover a variety of realities, not all of which share in some essence or invariable set of characteristics. "Games" is used as an example, just as "blue" or "love" or "justice" could be. But "corporations" may be artificial in a different way from games. Games come about organically, without creation from an already artificial construct: the government. In effect, games would exist without government, but corporations could not. Corporations represent artifice upon artifice. As such, their dimensions or boundaries are not plastic in the same way as games. The definition of corporation can be located far more precisely within the artifice of the law. But the very useful point that we can draw from Donaldson and Dunfee's discussion about games is that we have it within our power, publicly and politically, to change the way the game is played. LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN, PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS 31-34 (G.E.M. Anscombe trans., 1953) (numbered discussion points 66-70).
37. Donaldson & Dunfee, Unified Conception, supra note 7, at 267. In Ties that Bind, Donaldson and Dunfee have developed the epistemology of hypernorms considerably. See TIES THAT BIND, supra note 7, at 54-81.
38. Donaldson & Dunfee, Unified Conception, supra note 7, at 267. In Ties that Bind, Donaldson and Dunfee have developed the epistemology of hypernorms considerably. See TIES THAT BIND, supra note 7, at 54-81.
39. Note especially the articles in Vol. 5 of the BUSINESS ETHICS QUARTERLY, including Edward J. Conry, A Critique of Social Contracts for Business, 5 BUS. ETHICS Q. 187 (1995); Michael Keeley, Continuing the Social Contract Tradition, 5 BUS. ETHICS Q. 241 (1995); and Steven R. Salbu, Insider Trading and the Social Contract, 5 BUS. ETHICS Q. 313 (1995).
40. Note especially the articles in Vol. 5 of the BUSINESS ETHICS QUARTERLY, including Edward J. Conry, A Critique of Social Contracts for Business, 5 BUS. ETHICS Q. 187 (1995); Michael Keeley, Continuing the Social Contract Tradition, 5 BUS. ETHICS Q. 241 (1995); and Steven R. Salbu, Insider Trading and the Social Contract, 5 BUS. ETHICS Q. 313 (1995).
41. Note especially the articles in Vol. 5 of the BUSINESS ETHICS QUARTERLY, including Edward J. Conry, A Critique of Social Contracts for Business, 5 BUS. ETHICS Q. 187 (1995); Michael Keeley, Continuing the Social Contract Tradition, 5 BUS. ETHICS Q. 241 (1995); and Steven R. Salbu, Insider Trading and the Social Contract, 5 BUS. ETHICS Q. 313 (1995).
42. Metzger & Dalton, supra note 14, at 574-75. I disagree with this assessment. See infra note 141.
43. ROBERT NISBET, THE QUEST FOR COMMUNITY: A STUDY IN THE ETHICS OF ORDER AND FREEDOM 50 (2d ed. 1990), cited in Fort, Integrative Social Contract Theory: Integrating ISCT and Mediating Institutions, supra note 13.
44. ROBERT NISBET, THE QUEST FOR COMMUNITY: A STUDY IN THE ETHICS OF ORDER AND FREEDOM 50 (2d ed. 1990), cited in Fort, Integrative Social Contract Theory: Integrating ISCT and Mediating Institutions, supra note 13.
45. Fort, Corporation as Mediating Institution, supra note 10, at 151.
46. Note especially JEREMY RIFKIN, TIME WARS (1988) in which Rifkin coins the rather grim phrase "tempo gridlock" to describe the life of the average working American. We are locked, he claims, into an accelerating lifestyle that is always "on the go," with less and less experience of a more leisurely sense of time or the rich possibilities of family time or community involvement. See also infra note 38 and notes 121-22 and accompanying text.
47. Fort, Business as Mediating Institution, supra note 10, at 151.
48. Cultural conservatives are aghast, for example, that in school districts the local government (rather than the family) would tender advice to teens on birth control or distribute condoms, or that the federal government (through the Supreme Court) would condone abortion in any trimester.
49. WILLIAM LEACH, LAND OF DESIRE: MERCHANTS, POWER, AND THE RISE OF A NEW AMERICAN CULTURE (Vintage Edition 1994) (1993).
50. PAUL WACHTEL, THE POVERTY OF AFFLUENCE: A PSYCHOLOGICAL PORTRAIT OF AMERICAN LIFE (1989). See also infra notes 58-59 and accompanying text.
51. JULIET SCHOR, THE OVERWORKED AMERICAN: THE UNEXPECTED DECLINE OF LEISURE (1992) (analyzing why productivity of the U.S. worker doubled from 1948 to 1991 while work-hours have been rising steadily. Her thesis is that workers are being pulled by a number of centrifugal forces: employers encountering market forces that all but mandate longer hours, high consumption standards in the U.S. that entice people to take on high consumer debt, and a labor-union movement that abandoned the struggle for shorter hours 50 years ago.).
52. See generally JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER, THE GEOGRAPHY OF NOWHERE (1994) (discussing the role of urban sprawl, the federal highway system, VA and FHA loans, the home mortgage subsidy, and other structural economic adjustments that have spawned "Edge Cities," hollowed out urban cores, and a nation of people who spend more time in their cars than with each other).
53. See William Greider, Planet of Pirates: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism, UTNE READER, May/June 1997, at 70. "The deepest social meaning of the global economic revolution is that we no longer have free choice in this critical matter of identity. Ready or not, we are already of the world. As producers or consumers, as workers or merchants or investors, we are now bound to distant others through the complex strands of commerce and finance that are reorganizing the globe as a unified marketplace." Id. "Social cohesion and consent, even the minimal standards of human decency, are irrelevant to free markets . . . . Yet neither can people resign from the new circumstances of 'one world.'" Id. at 72. Greider's view stands in some contrast to Donaldson and Dunfee, who assert that microsocial contracts may be "authentic" and presumptively valid in cases where "consent" and the "right of exit" obtain; but in Greider's view, consent and the right of exit are largely illusory in the age of global corporate capitalism.
54. See DAVID KORTEN, WHEN CORPORATIONS RULE THE WORLD 124 (1995).
55. Id.
56. Id. at 79.
57. RICHARD BARNET & JOHN CAVANAGH, GLOBAL DREAMS: IMPERIAL CORPORATIONS AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER 22 (1994).
58. Id. See also BENJAMIN R. BARBER, JIHAD VS. MCWORLD (1995) (Barber's thesis is that a one-world commercial culture is seen as a threat by many local, traditional communities, who seek to preserve their identity in the midst of the commercialization of culture.). For a similar view of history and globalization, see THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE (1999) in which Friedman describes the "disconnect" between the commercial culture of globalization (symbolized by the Lexus) and humanity's historical orientation toward kinship, tribe, and local community (symbolized by die olive tree). As Friedman puts it, half of the world in the post-Cold War era seemed intent on "building a better Lexus" by "modernizing, streamlining, and privatizing their economies in order to thrive in the system of globalization," while the other half of the world was "still caught up in the fight over who owns which olive tree." Id. at 27. Olive trees, Friedman explains, "represent everything that roots us, anchors us, identifies us and locates us in this world - whether it be belonging to a family, a community, a tribe, a nation, a religion, or, most of all, a place called home . . . . We fight so intensely at times over our olive trees because, at their best, they provide the feelings of self-esteem and belonging that are as essential for human survival as food in the belly. At worst, though, when taken to excess, an obsession with olive trees leads us to forge identities, bonds and communities based on our exclusion of others . . . ." Id. at 27.
59. Id. See also BENJAMIN R. BARBER, JIHAD VS. MCWORLD (1995) (Barber's thesis is that a one-world commercial culture is seen as a threat by many local, traditional communities, who seek to preserve their identity in the midst of the commercialization of culture.). For a similar view of history and globalization, see THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE (1999) in which Friedman describes the "disconnect" between the commercial culture of globalization (symbolized by the Lexus) and humanity's historical orientation toward kinship, tribe, and local community (symbolized by die olive tree). As Friedman puts it, half of the world in the post-Cold War era seemed intent on "building a better Lexus" by "modernizing, streamlining, and privatizing their economies in order to thrive in the system of globalization," while the other half of the world was "still caught up in the fight over who owns which olive tree." Id. at 27. Olive trees, Friedman explains, "represent everything that roots us, anchors us, identifies us and locates us in this world - whether it be belonging to a family, a community, a tribe, a nation, a religion, or, most of all, a place called home . . . . We fight so intensely at times over our olive trees because, at their best, they provide the feelings of self-esteem and belonging that are as essential for human survival as food in the belly. At worst, though, when taken to excess, an obsession with olive trees leads us to forge identities, bonds and communities based on our exclusion of others . . . ." Id. at 27.
60. The Baywatch estimate was printed in the TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL, July 9, 1996, at B14. See also FRIEDMAN, supra note 45, at 56. "In South Teheran, the poorest neighborhood of the Iranian capital, some families can afford a television and some can't. When I visited Teheran in 1997, I found that some of those in South Teheran who had televisions were setting up a few chairs and selling tickets when the most popular American television show came on each week (courtesy of a satellite). The most popular show was Baywatch, a Southern California fantasy, in which all die women wear only bikinis and are 36-24-36." FRIEDMAN, supra note 45, at 55-56.
61. The Baywatch estimate was printed in the TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL, July 9, 1996, at B14. See also FRIEDMAN, supra note 45, at 56. "In South Teheran, the poorest neighborhood of the Iranian capital, some families can afford a television and some can't. When I visited Teheran in 1997, I found that some of those in South Teheran who had televisions were setting up a few chairs and selling tickets when the most popular American television show came on each week (courtesy of a satellite). The most popular show was Baywatch, a Southern California fantasy, in which all die women wear only bikinis and are 36-24-36." FRIEDMAN, supra note 45, at 55-56.
62. See WILLIAM GREIDER, ONE WORLD, READY OR NOT: THE MANIC LOGIC OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM 351 (1997) (discussing the role of the Thai military in dial country's industrial development).
63. Id. at 342-43 (discussing the "worst industrial fire in the history of capitalism" on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand in 1993 (188 dead, 469 injured; many of them children), the corporate ownership of the toy factory, the relative lack of media attention or public/political outcry. Most of the toys made at the Kader factory were destined for American children.).
64. See, e.g., KENICHI OHMAE, THE BORDERLESS WORLD (1988).
65. Cass R. Sunstein, The Mystery of Progress, NEW REPUBLIC, Sept. 30, 1996, at 39 (reviewing JEAN DREZE & AMARTYA SEN, INDIA: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND OPPORTUNITY (1996)). "Dreze and Sen argue that market and government are not separate, that they are analytically and actually interdependent. Without government protection of contract and property rights, markets cannot exist." The Mystery of Progress, Sept. 30, 1996, at 39.
66. LEACH, supra note 36, at 387.
67. BARNET & CAVANAGH, supra note 44, at 15.
68. Id. at 15-16.
69. LEACH, supra note 36, at 384 (citing Ken Wells, Selling to the World: Global Ad Campaigns, After Many Missteps, Finally Pay Dividends, WALL ST. J., Aug. 27, 1992, at A1).
70. LEACH, supra note 36, at 384 (citing Ken Wells, Selling to the World: Global Ad Campaigns, After Many Missteps, Finally Pay Dividends, WALL ST. J., Aug. 27, 1992, at A1).
71. 55 Id. at 384.
72. Id. at 385.
73. See also ECOPSYCHOLOGY: RESTORING THE EARTH, HEALING THE MIND (Theodore Roszak et al. eds., 1995) (This volume is a breakthrough book in the field of ethics, psychology, and ecology, with significant implications for public policy. It is a collection of essays describing what might be called our societal state of mind, or collective ethic about the Earth and our place in it.).
74. WACHTEL, supra note 37, at 71.
75. LEACH, supra note 36, at 385-86.
76. RALPH ESTES, THE TYRANNY OF THE BOTTOM LINE 69-70 (1996).
77. See, e.g., MARY SCOTT & HOWARD ROTHMAN, COMPANIES WITH A CONSCIENCE (1994).
78. It is often noted that Aaron Feuerstein's much-celebrated decision to rebuild Maiden Mills in the same community after a devastating fire was possible in large part because his company was closely held. Another well-known example is Pacific Lumber Company, which was not privately held, but which had engaged in sustainable timbering for many years before being taken over by Charles Hewitt's MAXXAM Corporation. Subsequent to the takeover, Pacific Lumber changed its ways, and began greatly increased cutting operations to pay down its debt and maximize "efficiency." See Lisa Newton, The Chainsaws of Greed: The Case of Pacific Lumber, in CASE STUDIES IN BUSINESS ETHICS 86-106 (Thomas Donaldson & A1 Gini eds., 4th ed. 1996). That said, however, it is true that many public companies have managed to be competitive and to generate a culture of ethical awareness. Part of the unmistakable appeal of the Donaldson-Dunfee empirical agenda for business ethics is to study such companies to discover not only their underlying values, but also the ways in which those values are created and maintained.
79. George Brenkert, The Corporation and Its Culture, 5 BUS. ETHICS Q. 681-82 (1995).
80. Rick Wartzman, Nature or Nurture? Study Blames Ethical Lapses on Corporate Goals, WALL ST. J., Oct. 9, 1987.
81. Stanley Milgram, A Behavioral Study of Obedience, 67 J. ABNORMAL & SOC. PSYCHOL. 371-78 (1973). In Milgram's experiments at Yale, a large number of volunteer "trainers" in a carefully constructed experiment were found to administer dangerous levels of shock to a learning "partner" on the other side of a partition. While many participants protested having to administer shocks for wrong or silent responses, a large percentage of "trainers" were willing to continue shocking their partner as long as the researcher in charge was taking responsibility for the experiment.
82. J. Darley & C. Batson, From Jerusalem to Jericho: A Study of Situational and Dispositional Variable Helping Behavior, 27 J. PERSONALITY & SOC. PSYCHOL. 100-08 (1973). As described by Neil Brady, 40 seminary students were told to prepare and deliver a lecture on either the parable of the Good Samaritan or job opportunities for graduates. Half of the students in each group were told that they had plenty of time to prepare, but the other half were told that they must hurry. On the way to the lecture location, each student had to pass by a prostrate man (an actor) who was in obvious distress. "Of the 40 subjects, only 16 stopped to help him, and most of those were from the group that thought they had plenty of time to get to the lecture. Surprisingly, the title of their assigned lecture had no bearing on their willingness to stop . . . ." F. NEIL BRADY, ETHICAL MANAGING: RULES AND RESULTS 14-15 (1990).
83. J. Darley & C. Batson, From Jerusalem to Jericho: A Study of Situational and Dispositional Variable Helping Behavior, 27 J. PERSONALITY & SOC. PSYCHOL. 100-08 (1973). As described by Neil Brady, 40 seminary students were told to prepare and deliver a lecture on either the parable of the Good Samaritan or job opportunities for graduates. Half of the students in each group were told that they had plenty of time to prepare, but the other half were told that they must hurry. On the way to the lecture location, each student had to pass by a prostrate man (an actor) who was in obvious distress. "Of the 40 subjects, only 16 stopped to help him, and most of those were from the group that thought they had plenty of time to get to the lecture. Surprisingly, the title of their assigned lecture had no bearing on their willingness to stop . . . ." F. NEIL BRADY, ETHICAL MANAGING: RULES AND RESULTS 14-15 (1990).
84. Armstrong asked almost two thousand management students from ten countries to play the roles of board members of a multinational pharmaceutical company. The decision was whether to remove from the market a drug that had been found to endanger human life. As board members, 79 percent refused to withdraw the drug and undertook legal and political maneuvering to delay or end government efforts to ban the drug. Armstrong asked a sample of his students about an actual and identical case involving Upjohn and found that 97 percent deemed Upjohn's actions in refusing to withdraw the drug as "socially irresponsible." See J. Scott Armstrong, Social Irresponsibility in Management, 5J. BUS. RES. 185-213 (1977).
85. See, e.g. Jonathan Rowe, Reinventing the Corporation, WASH. MONTHLY, May/June 1996, at 16 . See also ESTES, supra note 60, at 22-25. "In the beginning corporations were chartered by monarchs to serve the interests of the state . . . . Democracies later adopted this tradition of chartering corporations to serve a public interest." ESTES, supra note 60, at 22-23.
86. See, e.g. Jonathan Rowe, Reinventing the Corporation, WASH. MONTHLY, May/June 1996, at 16 . See also ESTES, supra note 60, at 22-25. "In the beginning corporations were chartered by monarchs to serve the interests of the state . . . . Democracies later adopted this tradition of chartering corporations to serve a public interest." ESTES, supra note 60, at 22-23.
87. Liggett Co. v. Lee, Comm'r, 288 U.S. 517, 518-19 (Brandeis, J., dissenting). Brandeis wrote: The prevalence of the corporation in America has led men of this generation to act, at times, as if the privilege of doing business in the corporate form were inherent in the citizen (but) throughout the greater part of our history a different view prevailed. Although the value of this instrumentality in commerce and industry was fully recognized, incorporation for business was commonly denied because of fear. Fear of the encroachment upon the liberties and opportunities of the individual. Fear of the subjection of labor to capital. Fear of monopoly. Fear that the absorption of capital by corporations, and their perpetual life, might bring evils similar to those which attended mortmain. Id.
88. Donaldson and Dunfee are clearly correct when they note that corporations and other business forms are artifices, created by humans and alterable by humans. What seems missing is a commitment to mold corporate activities to human ends and humane purposes. Recall their claim that the evolution of the corporation and market economics from 1800 to present are "striking examples" of the "plasticity" of the corporate form and of capitalism. Plasticity implies a molding process where a manufacturer sets the design; this article contends that the plastic has taken on a life of its own, and that humanity is riding a runaway process and cannot seem to reign it in.
89. ROBERT REICH, THE WORK OF NATIONS: PREPARING OURSELVES FOR 21ST CENTURY CAPITALISM 42 (Vintage Edition 1992)(1991). "Gradually, the top executives of America's largest corporations would come to view themselves as 'corporate statesmen,' responsible for balancing the claims of stockholders, employees, and the American public. Surprisingly, the public would come to share this view." Id. "By the 1950s, the well-being of individual citizens, the prosperity of the nation, and the success of the nation's core corporations seemed inextricably connected. Most of the larger questions about the role of the giant corporation in American society had been resolved." Id. at 43.
90. Id. at 48. When Wilson was tapped by President Eisenhower to serve as Secretary of Defense, he was asked at a Senate confirmation hearing whether he would be able to make a decision for the public interest of the United States that would be adverse to GM's interests. He is reported to have said, " I cannot conceive of one because for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa. The difference did not exist. Our company is too big. It goes with the welfare of the country." Id. at 47-48 (citing Confirmation Hearings on Charles E. Wilson as Secretary of Defense Before the Senate Comm. On Armed Services (Feb. 18, 1953)).
91. See, e.g., Glenn Kessler, Treasury Aims to Shut Tax Shelters; Corporations' Use Of Schemes Rising, WASH. POST, Feb. 29, 2000, at A1.
92. See KORTEN, supra note 41, at 103.
93. Readers may wish to consider Russell Mokhiber's "Top 100 Criminals of the Decade" list, meant to mirror the Fortune 500 or the Fortes Platinum 100 lists. Mokhiber claims that during the 1990s there was a "wave of corporate criminality that has swamped prosecutors around the country." On the basis of his compilation, his claims appear justified. See Russell Mokhiber, Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade, available at http://www.corporate predators/org/top100.html (last visited Nov. 30, 2000).
94. MULTINATIONAL MONITOR, Corporate Crime and Punishment, July/August 1999, http://www.essential.org/monitor/mm1999/99july-aug/editorial.html.
95. Id.
96. See ESTES, supra note 60, at 105; see also PAUL HAWKEN, THE ECOLOGY OF COMMERCE 112-15 (1993). Hawken noted at the time that "one percent of American society owns nearly 60 percent of corporate equities and about 40 percent of the total wealth of this nation. These are the plutocrats who wield the power and control this preeminent 'company town' while trying to convince the other 99 percent of the citizenry that the system works in our best interests, too." Id. at 111.
97. See ESTES, supra note 60, at 105; see also PAUL HAWKEN, THE ECOLOGY OF COMMERCE 112-15 (1993). Hawken noted at the time that "one percent of American society owns nearly 60 percent of corporate equities and about 40 percent of the total wealth of this nation. These are the plutocrats who wield the power and control this preeminent 'company town' while trying to convince the other 99 percent of the citizenry that the system works in our best interests, too." Id. at 111.
98. ESTES, supra note 60, at 105.
99. According to Common Cause, lawyers and lobbyists contributed over $4,760,000 in "soft money" to Republican and Democratic national parties in 1999; unions contributed over $6,913,000, while various industries (securities and investment, telecommunications, real estate, pharmaceuticals and insurance) contributed over $41,323.000 in soft money. COMMON CAUSE, 100% Special-Interest Financing, Mar. 2,2000, http://www.commoncause. org/soft_money/study99/intro.htm.
100. See supra notes 44-46 and accompanying text.
101. For the final episode of the CBS series Survivor in August of 2000, prime-time advertising was selling for $600,000 for a 30 second spot. National Public Radio, Morning Edition, (Radio broadcast, Aug. 24, 2000).
102. See WACHTEL, supra note 37. See also ECOPSYCHOLOGY: RESTORING THE EARTH, HEALING THE MIND, supra note 57.
103. See WACHTEL, supra note 37. See also ECOPSYCHOLOGY: RESTORING THE EARTH, HEALING THE MIND, supra note 57.
104. HAWKEN, supra note 78, at 108.
105. The flight of firms and investors out of countries that impose relatively high costs for whatever reason - labor laws, environmental protections, high inflation, welfare and social safety nets that require high taxation - is "the preeminent political issue for the nations of advanced capitalism," according to Greider. In military terms, the free-running market has mounted a pincer movement against the modern welfare state and is advancing to disable it. One flank of the attack is formed by debt, the accumulating indebtedness of the wealthiest governments as they are unable to keep up with the costs of long-established social commitments. The other flank is capital exit - the flight of firms and investors to other locations when nations fail to shrink their overhead costs that the welfare state imposes on enterprise and labor markets. GREIDER, supra note 47, at 360.
106. See ROBERT KUTTNER, EVERYTHING FOR SALE: THE VIRTUES AND LIMITS OF MARKETS (1996). Today, employers are breaching virtually all of the conventions so carefully analyzed by the last generation of labor economists - and evidently getting away with it. With heightened competition and successive waves of leveraged buyouts, brutal downsizings have become normal. Relentless layoffs are not merely a temporary response to business cycles, but a way of life. Labor has come to be viewed not as a long-term resource but as an expendable cost center. Id. at 74.
107. CHARLES HANDY, THE HUNGRY SPIRIT 64 (1998).
108. RALPH NADER & WESLEY J. SMITH, No CONTEST: CORPORATE LAWYERS AND THE PERVERSION OF JUSTICE IN AMERICA 136 (1996).
109. Id. at 137. See also JONATHAN HARR, A CIVIL ACTION (1995) (quoting Jerome Facher, attorney for Beatrice Corporation, as smiling and saying "The truth? The truth is at the bottom of a bottomless pit.") Id. at 340.
110. Id. at 137. See also JONATHAN HARR, A CIVIL ACTION (1995) (quoting Jerome Facher, attorney for Beatrice Corporation, as smiling and saying "The truth? The truth is at the bottom of a bottomless pit.") Id. at 340.
111. NADER & SMITH, supra note 88, at 102.
112. Id. at 104.
113. Id. at 104.
114. See infra notes 115-23 and accompanying text. See also ESTES, supra note 60, at 117-200.
115. See infra notes 115-23 and accompanying text. See also ESTES, supra note 60, at 117-200.
116. REICH, supra note 71, at 47.
117. See GREIDER, supra note 47, at 192-223 (discussing the global movement of manufacturing capital and finance capital and ineffective U.S. government attempts to manage the process).
118. See generally TOM ATHANASIOU, DIVIDED PLANET: THE ECOLOGY OF RICH AND POOR (1996) (discussing the impacts of free trade and global capitalism on developing nations since World War II). "From the perspective of the new world disorder, with economic, political, and ecological chaos all competing for our scant time and attention, with 'globalization' become a euphemism for a commercial imperative unbuffered by ethical skepticism, care for the weak and vulnerable, environmental protection, or even democracy, the schemes of the post-World War II geopoliticians do not seem to have worn well at all." Id. at 44. Those readers who work in business schools are likely inclined to disbelieve such sweeping conclusions, but owe it to themselves (and their students) to read the evidence that Athanasiou has assembled.
119. Nicholas Bray, OECD Ministers Agree to Ban Bribery As Means for Companies to Win Business, WALL ST. J., May 27, 1997, at A2. For the past twenty years, many business ethics writers have assumed that U.S. concern over bribery was parochial and reflected "U.S. values" rather than global ones. See also Barbara Crutchfield George et al., The 1998 OECD Convention: An Impetus for Worldwide Changes in Attitudes toward Corruption in Business Transactions, 37 AM. BUS. L.J. 485 (2000).
120. Nicholas Bray, OECD Ministers Agree to Ban Bribery As Means for Companies to Win Business, WALL ST. J., May 27, 1997, at A2. For the past twenty years, many business ethics writers have assumed that U.S. concern over bribery was parochial and reflected "U.S. values" rather than global ones. See also Barbara Crutchfield George et al., The 1998 OECD Convention: An Impetus for Worldwide Changes in Attitudes toward Corruption in Business Transactions, 37 AM. BUS. L.J. 485 (2000).
121. Friedman, supra note 45, at 144-47. (With regard to transparency, Friedman notes that "the herd" of global capital investment will stampede out of nations that fail to make financial records open or "transparent," and will make more of a commitment to economies where generally accepted accounting standards prevail. Harmonization of other standards is also part of this process, led by capital, which is able to penetrate and investigate the underpinnings of an economy far better than governments can.).
122. Note that the role of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is often crucial in mediating between citizens, governments, and corporations. See THOMAS PRINCEN & MATTHIAS FINGER, ENVIRONMENTAL NGOS IN WORLD POLITICS (1994). In the case of bribery as a transnational social/business problem, Transparency International has had a leading role, and has argued for years that bribery is not only dishonest but is also economically inefficient, results in higher prices to consumers, encourages corrupt elites in developing countries, and is essentially anti-democratic in effect. See TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL INTEGRITY SYSTEMS: THE TI SOURCE BOOK (Jeremy Pope ed., 1996) http://www.transparency.de/documents/source-book/index.html.
123. Note that the role of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is often crucial in mediating between citizens, governments, and corporations. See THOMAS PRINCEN & MATTHIAS FINGER, ENVIRONMENTAL NGOS IN WORLD POLITICS (1994). In the case of bribery as a transnational social/business problem, Transparency International has had a leading role, and has argued for years that bribery is not only dishonest but is also economically inefficient, results in higher prices to consumers, encourages corrupt elites in developing countries, and is essentially anti-democratic in effect. See TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL INTEGRITY SYSTEMS: THE TI SOURCE BOOK (Jeremy Pope ed., 1996) http://www.transparency.de/documents/source-book/index.html.
124. See, e.g. HERMAN E. DALY & JOHN B. COBB, JR., FOR THE COMMON GOOD: REDIRECTING THE ECONOMY TOWARD COMMUNITY, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE (1989) [hereinafter COMMON GOOD] and HERMAN E. DALY, BEYOND GROWTH: THE ECONOMICS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (1996) [hereinafter BEYOND GROWTH].
125. See e.g., BEYOND GROWTH, supra note 100, at 40-41. It is by now a commonplace to point out that GNP does not reveal whether we are living off income or capital, off interest or principal. Depletion of fossil fuels, minerals, forests, and soils is capital consumption, yet such unsustainable consumption is treated no differently from sustainable yield production (true income) in GNP. But not only do we decumulate positive capital (wealth), we also accumulate negative capital (illth) in the form of toxic-waste deposits and nuclear dumps. Id.
126. Some of the worst environmental problems are attributable to the public sector. The U.S. government's Hanford Nuclear facility, for example, still has 54 million gallons of radioactive waste that must be disposed of, with cleanup costs to exceed 15 billion dollars. See Craig Welch, DOE Sacks N-Cleanup Contractor, SEATTLE TIMES, May 9, 2000, at B1. But consumers must bear responsibility as well. See, e.g., 1 in 5 admit buying drugs made from endangered species, Kyodo News Service, Associated Press, April 5, 1999, http://cnnfn.news-real.com/apnews/19990406/02/29/3293400_st.html. Also, while it is true that people do choose to buy products sold by corporations, and thus bear some responsibility, they are often unaware of the social costs engendered by the products they purchase (information about labor conditions or environmental impacts in the production of the product are seldom voluntarily provided by the company) and corporations in this century have worked to create consumer desires, transforming luxuries into perceived necessities. See generally LEACH, supra note 36. As to the relative roles of consumers, government, and corporations in creating excessive carbon dioxide emissions from the U.S., see Donald O. Mayer, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Social Responsibility of Automakers, 105 BUS. & SOC'Y REV. 347 (2000).
127. Some of the worst environmental problems are attributable to the public sector. The U.S. government's Hanford Nuclear facility, for example, still has 54 million gallons of radioactive waste that must be disposed of, with cleanup costs to exceed 15 billion dollars. See Craig Welch, DOE Sacks N-Cleanup Contractor, SEATTLE TIMES, May 9, 2000, at B1. But consumers must bear responsibility as well. See, e.g., 1 in 5 admit buying drugs made from endangered species, Kyodo News Service, Associated Press, April 5, 1999, http://cnnfn.news-real.com/apnews/19990406/02/29/3293400_st.html. Also, while it is true that people do choose to buy products sold by corporations, and thus bear some responsibility, they are often unaware of the social costs engendered by the products they purchase (information about labor conditions or environmental impacts in the production of the product are seldom voluntarily provided by the company) and corporations in this century have worked to create consumer desires, transforming luxuries into perceived necessities. See generally LEACH, supra note 36. As to the relative roles of consumers, government, and corporations in creating excessive carbon dioxide emissions from the U.S., see Donald O. Mayer, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Social Responsibility of Automakers, 105 BUS. & SOC'Y REV. 347 (2000).
128. Some of the worst environmental problems are attributable to the public sector. The U.S. government's Hanford Nuclear facility, for example, still has 54 million gallons of radioactive waste that must be disposed of, with cleanup costs to exceed 15 billion dollars. See Craig Welch, DOE Sacks N-Cleanup Contractor, SEATTLE TIMES, May 9, 2000, at B1. But consumers must bear responsibility as well. See, e.g., 1 in 5 admit buying drugs made from endangered species, Kyodo News Service, Associated Press, April 5, 1999, http://cnnfn.news-real.com/apnews/19990406/02/29/3293400_st.html. Also, while it is true that people do choose to buy products sold by corporations, and thus bear some responsibility, they are often unaware of the social costs engendered by the products they purchase (information about labor conditions or environmental impacts in the production of the product are seldom voluntarily provided by the company) and corporations in this century have worked to create consumer desires, transforming luxuries into perceived necessities. See generally LEACH, supra note 36. As to the relative roles of consumers, government, and corporations in creating excessive carbon dioxide emissions from the U.S., see Donald O. Mayer, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Social Responsibility of Automakers, 105 BUS. & SOC'Y REV. 347 (2000).
129. Some of the worst environmental problems are attributable to the public sector. The U.S. government's Hanford Nuclear facility, for example, still has 54 million gallons of radioactive waste that must be disposed of, with cleanup costs to exceed 15 billion dollars. See Craig Welch, DOE Sacks N-Cleanup Contractor, SEATTLE TIMES, May 9, 2000, at B1. But consumers must bear responsibility as well. See, e.g., 1 in 5 admit buying drugs made from endangered species, Kyodo News Service, Associated Press, April 5, 1999, http://cnnfn.news-real.com/apnews/19990406/02/29/3293400_st.html. Also, while it is true that people do choose to buy products sold by corporations, and thus bear some responsibility, they are often unaware of the social costs engendered by the products they purchase (information about labor conditions or environmental impacts in the production of the product are seldom voluntarily provided by the company) and corporations in this century have worked to create consumer desires, transforming luxuries into perceived necessities. See generally LEACH, supra note 36. As to the relative roles of consumers, government, and corporations in creating excessive carbon dioxide emissions from the U.S., see Donald O. Mayer, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Social Responsibility of Automakers, 105 BUS. & SOC'Y REV. 347 (2000).
130. Nicholas Bray, OECD Ministers Agree to Ban Bribery As Means for Companies to Win Business, WALL ST. J., May 27, 1997, at A2 . For the past twenty years, many business ethics writers have assumed that U.S. concern over bribery was parochial and reflected "U.S. values" rather than global ones. See also Barbara Crutchfield George et al., The 1998 OECD Convention: An Impetus for Worldwide Changes in Attitudes toward Corruption in Business Transactions, 37 AM. BUS. L.J. 485 (2000).
131. Nicholas Bray, OECD Ministers Agree to Ban Bribery As Means for Companies to Win Business, WALL ST. J., May 27, 1997, at A2 . For the past twenty years, many business ethics writers have assumed that U.S. concern over bribery was parochial and reflected "U.S. values" rather than global ones. See also Barbara Crutchfield George et al., The 1998 OECD Convention: An Impetus for Worldwide Changes in Attitudes toward Corruption in Business Transactions, 37 AM. BUS. L.J. 485 (2000).
132. Friedman, supra note 45, at 144-47. (With regard to transparency, Friedman notes that "the herd" of global capital investment will stampede out of nations that fail to make financial records open or "transparent," and will make more of a commitment to economies where generally accepted accounting standards prevail. Harmonization of other standards is also part of this process, led by capital, which is able to penetrate and investigate the underpinnings of an economy far better than governments can.).
133. Note that the role of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is often crucial in mediating between citizens, governments, and corporations. See THOMAS PRINCEN & MATTHIAS FINGER, ENVIRONMENTAL NGOS IN WORLD POLITICS (1994). In the case of bribery as a transnational social/business problem, Transparency International has had a leading role, and has argued for years that bribery is not only dishonest but is also economically inefficient, results in higher prices to consumers, encourages corrupt elites in developing countries, and is essentially anti-democratic in effect. See TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL INTEGRITY SYSTEMS: THE TI SOURCE BOOK (Jeremy Pope ed., 1996) http://www.transparency.de/documents/source-book/index.html.
134. Note that the role of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is often crucial in mediating between citizens, governments, and corporations. See THOMAS PRINCEN & MATTHIAS FINGER, ENVIRONMENTAL NGOS IN WORLD POLITICS (1994). In the case of bribery as a transnational social/business problem, Transparency International has had a leading role, and has argued for years that bribery is not only dishonest but is also economically inefficient, results in higher prices to consumers, encourages corrupt elites in developing countries, and is essentially anti-democratic in effect. See TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL INTEGRITY SYSTEMS: THE TI SOURCE BOOK (Jeremy Pope ed., 1996) http://www.transparency.de/documents/source-book/index.html.
135. See, e.g. HERMAN E. DALY & JOHN B. COBB, JR., FOR THE COMMON GOOD: REDIRECTING THE ECONOMY TOWARD COMMUNITY, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE (1989) [hereinafter COMMON GOOD] and HERMAN E. DALY, BEYOND GROWTH: THE ECONOMICS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (1996) [hereinafter BEYOND GROWTH].
136. See e.g., BEYOND GROWTH, supra note 100, at 40-41. It is by now a commonplace to point out that GNP does not reveal whether we are living off income or capital, off interest or principal. Depletion of fossil fuels, minerals, forests, and soils is capital consumption, yet such unsustainable consumption is treated no differently from sustainable yield production (true income) in GNP. But not only do we decumulate positive capital (wealth), we also accumulate negative capital (illth) in the form of toxic-waste deposits and nuclear dumps. Id.
137. Some of the worst environmental problems are attributable to the public sector. The U.S. government's Hanford Nuclear facility, for example, still has 54 million gallons of radioactive waste that must be disposed of, with cleanup costs to exceed 15 billion dollars. See Craig Welch, DOE Sacks N-Cleanup Contractor, SEATTLE TIMES, May 9, 2000, at B1. But consumers must bear responsibility as well. See, e.g., 1 in 5 admit buying drugs made from endangered species, Kyodo News Service, Associated Press, April 5, 1999, http://cnnfh.news-real.com/apnews/19990406/02/29/3293400_st.html. Also, while it is true that people do choose to buy products sold by corporations, and thus bear some responsibility, they are often unaware of the social costs engendered by the products they purchase (information about labor conditions or environmental impacts in the production of the product are seldom voluntarily provided by the company) and corporations in this century have worked to create consumer desires, transforming luxuries into perceived necessities. See generally LEACH, supra note 36. As to the relative roles of consumers, government, and corporations in creating excessive carbon dioxide emissions from the U.S., see Donald O. Mayer, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Social Responsibility of Automates, 105 BUS. & SOC'Y REV. 347 (2000).
138. Some of the worst environmental problems are attributable to the public sector. The U.S. government's Hanford Nuclear facility, for example, still has 54 million gallons of radioactive waste that must be disposed of, with cleanup costs to exceed 15 billion dollars. See Craig Welch, DOE Sacks N-Cleanup Contractor, SEATTLE TIMES, May 9, 2000, at B1. But consumers must bear responsibility as well. See, e.g., 1 in 5 admit buying drugs made from endangered species, Kyodo News Service, Associated Press, April 5, 1999, http://cnnfh.news-real.com/apnews/19990406/02/29/3293400_st.html. Also, while it is true that people do choose to buy products sold by corporations, and thus bear some responsibility, they are often unaware of the social costs engendered by the products they purchase (information about labor conditions or environmental impacts in the production of the product are seldom voluntarily provided by the company) and corporations in this century have worked to create consumer desires, transforming luxuries into perceived necessities. See generally LEACH, supra note 36. As to the relative roles of consumers, government, and corporations in creating excessive carbon dioxide emissions from the U.S., see Donald O. Mayer, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Social Responsibility of Automates, 105 BUS. & SOC'Y REV. 347 (2000).
139. Some of the worst environmental problems are attributable to the public sector. The U.S. government's Hanford Nuclear facility, for example, still has 54 million gallons of radioactive waste that must be disposed of, with cleanup costs to exceed 15 billion dollars. See Craig Welch, DOE Sacks N-Cleanup Contractor, SEATTLE TIMES, May 9, 2000, at B1. But consumers must bear responsibility as well. See, e.g., 1 in 5 admit buying drugs made from endangered species, Kyodo News Service, Associated Press, April 5, 1999, http://cnnfh.news-real.com/apnews/19990406/02/29/3293400_st.html. Also, while it is true that people do choose to buy products sold by corporations, and thus bear some responsibility, they are often unaware of the social costs engendered by the products they purchase (information about labor conditions or environmental impacts in the production of the product are seldom voluntarily provided by the company) and corporations in this century have worked to create consumer desires, transforming luxuries into perceived necessities. See generally LEACH, supra note 36. As to the relative roles of consumers, government, and corporations in creating excessive carbon dioxide emissions from the U.S., see Donald O. Mayer, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Social Responsibility of Automates, 105 BUS. & SOC'Y REV. 347 (2000).
140. Some of the worst environmental problems are attributable to the public sector. The U.S. government's Hanford Nuclear facility, for example, still has 54 million gallons of radioactive waste that must be disposed of, with cleanup costs to exceed 15 billion dollars. See Craig Welch, DOE Sacks N-Cleanup Contractor, SEATTLE TIMES, May 9, 2000, at B1. But consumers must bear responsibility as well. See, e.g., 1 in 5 admit buying drugs made from endangered species, Kyodo News Service, Associated Press, April 5, 1999, http://cnnfh.news-real.com/apnews/19990406/02/29/3293400_st.html. Also, while it is true that people do choose to buy products sold by corporations, and thus bear some responsibility, they are often unaware of the social costs engendered by the products they purchase (information about labor conditions or environmental impacts in the production of the product are seldom voluntarily provided by the company) and corporations in this century have worked to create
141. HAWKEN, supra note 78, at 3, 4.
142. Paul Hawken, Natural Capitalism, MOTHER JONES, Mar./Apr. 1996, at 40-62. For the complete elaboration of "natural capitalism,"
143. see PAUL HAWKEN, AMORY B. LOVINS & L. HUNTER LOVINS, NATURAL CAPITALISM (1999).
144. George Soros, The Capitalist Threat, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, Feb. 1997, at 45. Accord BARBER, supra note 45, at 15. "Certainly the hurried pursuit of free markets regardless of social consequences has put democratic development in jeopardy in many nations recently liberated from communism." BARBER, supra note 45, at 15.
145. Soros, supra note 105, at 48.
146. Id. at 50.
147. Id. at 52.
148. Id. at 55.
149. Rather than prescribing a set of potential shared values, Soros recommends a process for finding them. His answer is "the open society" and the recognition of our own fallibility in reasoning; he recommends a recognition of "trial and error" rather than an insistence on first principles and ideologies. Regardless of his recommendations, his perception of the problem is remarkably consistent with other commentators cited here, such as GREIDER, supra note 47,
150. and RIFKIN, supra note 1. Each speaks of the undermining of what we have previously regarded as traditional forms of community and culture.
151. Hawken, Natural Capitalism, supra note 104, at 42.
152. Id. at 44.
153. Id. at 46.
154. Id.
155. GDP is now routinely substituted for a somewhat more familiar term, GNP (or Gross National Product). For the distinction between the two, see Clifford Cobb et al., If the GDP is Up, Why is America Down?, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, Oct 1990, at 59.
156. Id. See also COMMON GOOD, supra note 100, at 62-84.
157. Hawken, Natural Capitalism, supra note 104, at 48.
158. Id.
159. ESTES, supra note 60, at 171.
160. Hawken, Natural Capitalism, supra note 104, at 4-6.
161. Id. at 49.
162. Id. at 4-8-49. See also WILLIAM WOLMAN & ANNE COLAMOSCA, THE JUDAS ECONOMY: THE TRIUMPH OF CAPITAL AND THE BETRAYAL OF WORK (1997). Wolman (at the time, chief economist at Business Week magazine) and Colamosca contend that from 1977 to 1997, U.S. workers lived through twenty years of "wage stagnation" and an economic system that provided rewards primarily to the "very rich," living through a period "when more and more members of each household had to go to work seeking to maintain their accustomed standard of living." WOLMAN & COLAMOSCA, supra at 198.
163. Id. at 4-8-49. See also WILLIAM WOLMAN & ANNE COLAMOSCA, THE JUDAS ECONOMY: THE TRIUMPH OF CAPITAL AND THE BETRAYAL OF WORK (1997). Wolman (at the time, chief economist at Business Week magazine) and Colamosca contend that from 1977 to 1997, U.S. workers lived through twenty years of "wage stagnation" and an economic system that provided rewards primarily to the "very rich," living through a period "when more and more members of each household had to go to work seeking to maintain their accustomed standard of living." WOLMAN & COLAMOSCA, supra at 198.
164. The U.S. prison population has long been the highest in the world U.S. Prison Population May Pass 2 Million Next Year, REUTERS, Apr. 20, 2000, http://www.sightings.com/general/ priz.htm.
165. Hawken, Natural Capitalism, supra note 104, at 50.
166. Id. at 50.
167. Accord WOLMAN & COLAMOSCA, supra note 122, who find that changes to the tax code in the 1980s had the net effect of greatly increasing "the burden for federal expenditures carried by those who earn their living from work." Id. at 177.
168. Hawken, Natural Capitalism, supra note 104, at 59.
169. The naturalistic fallacy is the mistaken idea that whatever happens naturally is always for the best. As Manuel Velasquez notes, "It is a basic failure of logic . . . to infer that what is necessarily ought to be or that what nature creates is necessarily for the best." MANUEL G. VELASQUEZ, BUSINESS ETHICS: CONCEPTS AND CASES 183 (4th ed. 1999).
170. HAWKEN, ECOLOGY OF COMMERCE, supra note 78, at 78.
171. Id. at 79.
172. RIFKIN, supra note 1, at 241.
173. See AMITAI ETZIONI, THE MORAL DIMENSION: TOWARD A NEW ECONOMICS (1988). See also Bill Shaw & Frances E. Zollers, What Etzioni Might Mean to Moral Managers, 3 BUS. ETHICS Q. 153-69 (1993). As Shaw and Zollers note, Etzioni's view takes the neoclassical view of a rational, self-interested economic actor and merges it with communitarian and moral values; his theory of socio-economics "seeks to link, or integrate, rather than fuse, economics with other social sciences." Id. at 154. Shaw and Zollers further note that Etzioni's views promote a more promising agenda for strategic and operating components of the firm and its commitments to external communities. Id. at 164. "Research," they note, "must focus on collectivities. . . (since) the values of the collective provide context for our choices. . . ." Id. at 165. See also Hosmer, supra note 3; Edwin N. Hartman, The Commons and the Moral Organization, 4 BUS. ETHICS Q. 253 (1994); Robert Solomon, The Corporation as Community: A Reply to Ed Hartman, 4 BUS. ETHICS Q. 271 (1994). In all of these, and elsewhere, there is a desire to look at business organizations as communities. Etzioni defines community as a "web of affect-laden relationships among a group of individuals, relations that often crisscross and reinforce one another . . . and second, a measure of commitment to a set of shared values, norms, and meanings, and a shared history and identity - in short, to a particular culture. AMITAI ETZIONI, THE NEW GOLDEN RULE: COMMUNITY AND MORALITY IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY 127 (1997).
174. See AMITAI ETZIONI, THE MORAL DIMENSION: TOWARD A NEW ECONOMICS (1988). See also Bill Shaw & Frances E. Zollers, What Etzioni Might Mean to Moral Managers, 3 BUS. ETHICS Q. 153-69 (1993). As Shaw and Zollers note, Etzioni's view takes the neoclassical view of a rational, self-interested economic actor and merges it with communitarian and moral values; his theory of socio-economics "seeks to link, or integrate, rather than fuse, economics with other social sciences." Id. at 154. Shaw and Zollers further note that Etzioni's views promote a more promising agenda for strategic and operating components of the firm and its commitments to external communities. Id. at 164. "Research," they note, "must focus on collectivities. . . (since) the values of the collective provide context for our choices. . . ." Id. at 165. See also Hosmer, supra note 3; Edwin N. Hartman, The Commons and the Moral Organization, 4 BUS. ETHICS Q. 253 (1994); Robert Solomon, The Corporation as Community: A Reply to Ed Hartman, 4 BUS. ETHICS Q. 271 (1994). In all of these, and elsewhere, there is a desire to look at business organizations as communities. Etzioni defines community as a "web of affect-laden relationships among a group of individuals, relations that often crisscross and reinforce one another . . . and second, a measure of commitment to a set of shared values, norms, and meanings, and a shared history and identity - in short, to a particular culture. AMITAI ETZIONI, THE NEW GOLDEN RULE: COMMUNITY AND MORALITY IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY 127 (1997).
175. See AMITAI ETZIONI, THE MORAL DIMENSION: TOWARD A NEW ECONOMICS (1988). See also Bill Shaw & Frances E. Zollers, What Etzioni Might Mean to Moral Managers, 3 BUS. ETHICS Q. 153-69 (1993). As Shaw and Zollers note, Etzioni's view takes the neoclassical view of a rational, self-interested economic actor and merges it with communitarian and moral values; his theory of socio-economics "seeks to link, or integrate, rather than fuse, economics with other social sciences." Id. at 154. Shaw and Zollers further note that Etzioni's views promote a more promising agenda for strategic and operating components of the firm and its commitments to external communities. Id. at 164. "Research," they note, "must focus on collectivities. . . (since) the values of the collective provide context for our choices. . . ." Id. at 165. See also Hosmer, supra note 3; Edwin N. Hartman, The Commons and the Moral Organization, 4 BUS. ETHICS Q. 253 (1994); Robert Solomon, The Corporation as Community: A Reply to Ed Hartman, 4 BUS. ETHICS Q. 271 (1994). In all of these, and elsewhere, there is a desire to look at business organizations as communities. Etzioni defines community as a "web of affect-laden relationships among a group of individuals, relations that often crisscross and reinforce one another . . . and second, a measure of commitment to a set of shared values, norms, and meanings, and a shared history and identity - in short, to a particular culture. AMITAI ETZIONI, THE NEW GOLDEN RULE: COMMUNITY AND MORALITY IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY 127 (1997).
176. See AMITAI ETZIONI, THE MORAL DIMENSION: TOWARD A NEW ECONOMICS (1988). See also Bill Shaw & Frances E. Zollers, What Etzioni Might Mean to Moral Managers, 3 BUS. ETHICS Q. 153-69 (1993). As Shaw and Zollers note, Etzioni's view takes the neoclassical view of a rational, self-interested economic actor and merges it with communitarian and moral values; his theory of socio-economics "seeks to link, or integrate, rather than fuse, economics with other social sciences." Id. at 154. Shaw and Zollers further note that Etzioni's views promote a more promising agenda for strategic and operating components of the firm and its commitments to external communities. Id. at 164. "Research," they note, "must focus on collectivities. . . (since) the values of the collective provide context for our choices. . . ." Id. at 165. See also Hosmer, supra note 3; Edwin N. Hartman, The Commons and the Moral Organization, 4 BUS. ETHICS Q. 253 (1994); Robert Solomon, The Corporation as Community: A Reply to Ed Hartman, 4 BUS. ETHICS Q. 271 (1994). In all of these, and elsewhere, there is a desire to look at business organizations as communities. Etzioni defines community as a "web of affect-laden relationships among a group of individuals, relations that often crisscross and reinforce one another . . . and second, a measure of commitment to a set of shared values, norms, and meanings, and a shared history and identity - in short, to a particular culture. AMITAI ETZIONI, THE NEW GOLDEN RULE: COMMUNITY AND MORALITY IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY 127 (1997).
177. See AMITAI ETZIONI, THE MORAL DIMENSION: TOWARD A NEW ECONOMICS (1988). See also Bill Shaw & Frances E. Zollers, What Etzioni Might Mean to Moral Managers, 3 BUS. ETHICS Q. 153-69 (1993). As Shaw and Zollers note, Etzioni's view takes the neoclassical view of a rational, self-interested economic actor and merges it with communitarian and moral values; his theory of socio-economics "seeks to link, or integrate, rather than fuse, economics with other social sciences." Id. at 154. Shaw and Zollers further note that Etzioni's views promote a more promising agenda for strategic and operating components of the firm and its commitments to external communities. Id. at 164. "Research," they note, "must focus on collectivities. . . (since) the values of the collective provide context for our choices. . . ." Id. at 165. See also Hosmer, supra note 3; Edwin N. Hartman, The Commons and the Moral Organization, 4 BUS. ETHICS Q. 253 (1994); Robert Solomon, The Corporation as Community: A Reply to Ed Hartman, 4 BUS. ETHICS Q. 271 (1994). In all of these, and elsewhere, there is a desire to look at business organizations as communities. Etzioni defines community as a "web of affect-laden relationships among a group of individuals, relations that often crisscross and reinforce one another . . . and second, a measure of commitment to a set of shared values, norms, and meanings, and a shared history and identity - in short, to a particular culture. AMITAI ETZIONI, THE NEW GOLDEN RULE: COMMUNITY AND MORALITY IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY 127 (1997).
178. See AMITAI ETZIONI, THE MORAL DIMENSION: TOWARD A NEW ECONOMICS (1988). See also Bill Shaw & Frances E. Zollers, What Etzioni Might Mean to Moral Managers, 3 BUS. ETHICS Q. 153-69 (1993). As Shaw and Zollers note, Etzioni's view takes the neoclassical view of a rational, self-interested economic actor and merges it with communitarian and moral values; his theory of socio-economics "seeks to link, or integrate, rather than fuse, economics with other social sciences." Id. at 154. Shaw and Zollers further note that Etzioni's views promote a more promising agenda for strategic and operating components of the firm and its commitments to external communities. Id. at 164. "Research," they note, "must focus on collectivities. . . (since) the values of the collective provide context for our choices. . . ." Id. at 165. See also Hosmer, supra note 3; Edwin N. Hartman, The Commons and the Moral Organization, 4 BUS. ETHICS Q. 253 (1994); Robert Solomon, The Corporation as Community: A Reply to Ed Hartman, 4 BUS. ETHICS Q. 271 (1994). In all of these, and elsewhere, there is a desire to look at business organizations as communities. Etzioni defines community as a "web of affect-laden relationships among a group of individuals, relations that often crisscross and reinforce one another . . . and second, a measure of commitment to a set of shared values, norms, and meanings, and a shared history and identity - in short, to a particular culture. AMITAI ETZIONI, THE NEW GOLDEN RULE: COMMUNITY AND MORALITY IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY 127 (1997).
179. See Metzger & Dalton, supra note 14, and accompanying text.
180. Hosmer, supra note 3.
181. BARNET & CAVANAGH, supra note 44, at 421.
182. See KORTEN, supra note 41, at 103-04 (discussing the 'Cloud Minders of Stratos'). In accord, see REICH, supra note 71, at 268-81 (In a chapter titled "The New Community," Reich discusses how both government and the new economic elite are distancing themselves from social needs and less fortunate segments of society.). See also RIFKIN, supra note 1, at 229 (discussing the deepening divide between the connected and the non-connected). "While nation-states are beginning to buckle under the pressure of a new global economic and social order made up of vast networks of shared interests that bypass national boundaries, eclipse geography, and exist in cyberspace, we need to understand that most people on earth are not connected to these new worlds. They exist outside the electronic gates in another world of poverty and despair in which sheer physical survival dictates the terms of daily life . . . . In an era in which the affluent fifth of the population is leaving property behind in search of cultural experiences and personal transformation, the remaining four-fifths have meager belongings and still wish to be propertied." RIFKIN, supra note 1, at 299. Rifkin notes that 65 percent of the human race has never made a single telephone call, and 40 percent have no access to electricity. RIFKIN, supra note 1, at 299.
183. See KORTEN, supra note 41, at 103-04 (discussing the 'Cloud Minders of Stratos'). In accord, see REICH, supra note 71, at 268-81 (In a chapter titled "The New Community," Reich discusses how both government and the new economic elite are distancing themselves from social needs and less fortunate segments of society.). See also RIFKIN, supra note 1, at 229 (discussing the deepening divide between the connected and the non-connected). "While nation-states are beginning to buckle under the pressure of a new global economic and social order made up of vast networks of shared interests that bypass national boundaries, eclipse geography, and exist in cyberspace, we need to understand that most people on earth are not connected to these new worlds. They exist outside the electronic gates in another world of poverty and despair in which sheer physical survival dictates the terms of daily life . . . . In an era in which the affluent fifth of the population is leaving property behind in search of cultural experiences and personal transformation, the remaining four-fifths have meager belongings and still wish to be propertied." RIFKIN, supra note 1, at 299. Rifkin notes that 65 percent of the human race has never made a single telephone call, and 40 percent have no access to electricity. RIFKIN, supra note 1, at 299.
184. See KORTEN, supra note 41, at 103-04 (discussing the 'Cloud Minders of Stratos'). In accord, see REICH, supra note 71, at 268-81 (In a chapter titled "The New Community," Reich discusses how both government and the new economic elite are distancing themselves from social needs and less fortunate segments of society.). See also RIFKIN, supra note 1, at 229 (discussing the deepening divide between the connected and the non-connected). "While nation-states are beginning to buckle under the pressure of a new global economic and social order made up of vast networks of shared interests that bypass national boundaries, eclipse geography, and exist in cyberspace, we need to understand that most people on earth are not connected to these new worlds. They exist outside the electronic gates in another world of poverty and despair in which sheer physical survival dictates the terms of daily life . . . . In an era in which the affluent fifth of the population is leaving property behind in search of cultural experiences and personal transformation, the remaining four-fifths have meager belongings and still wish to be propertied." RIFKIN, supra note 1, at 299. Rifkin notes that 65 percent of the human race has never made a single telephone call, and 40 percent have no access to electricity. RIFKIN, supra note 1, at 299.
185. Applying the prioritization rules and hypernorms may well be problematic. See Bill Shaw, Ties That Bind, 37 A.M. BUS. L.J. 569 (2000) (review essay).
186. TIES THAT BIND, supra note 7, at 186. ("The more extensive or more global the community that is the source of the norm, the greater the priority that should be given to the norm.")
187. Fort, Corporation as Mediating Institution, supra note 15, at 190-94. In most of his writings, Fort provides a compelling answer to Metzger and Dalton: we don't need to look at organizational realities all that much - we already know that businesses, to serve as mediating institutions, need to take social psychology seriously enough to re-structure their operations and governance to provide a better sense of intra-firm community. Empirically, ethicists may study and deliberate upon those corporations that manage to do this, but must also consider the legal structures that encourage or inhibit such transformations.
188. See Michael Bradley et al., Challenges to Corporate Governance: The Purposes and Accountability of the Corporation in Contemporary Society: Corporate Governance at a Crossroads, 62 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 9 (1999).
189. Friedman, supra note 45, at 378 ("America at its best takes the needs of markets, individuals and communities all utterly seriously. And that's why America, at its best, is not just a country. It's a spiritual value and role model.").
190. Id. at 144-47, 349-78.
191. Many of the suggestions by Hawken, Daly, Greider, and Korten in works cited earlier would qualify. See Hawken, Natural Capitalism, supra note 104; COMMON GROUND, supra note 100; GREIDER, supra note 47; KORTEN, supra note 41.
192. Many of the suggestions by Hawken, Daly, Greider, and Korten in works cited earlier would qualify. See Hawken, Natural Capitalism, supra note 104; COMMON GROUND, supra note 100; GREIDER, supra note 47; KORTEN, supra note 41.
193. Many of the suggestions by Hawken, Daly, Greider, and Korten in works cited earlier would qualify. See Hawken, Natural Capitalism, supra note 104; COMMON GROUND, supra note 100; GREIDER, supra note 47; KORTEN, supra note 41.
194. Many of the suggestions by Hawken, Daly, Greider, and Korten in works cited earlier would qualify. See Hawken, Natural Capitalism, supra note 104; COMMON GROUND, supra note 100; GREIDER, supra note 47; KORTEN, supra note 41.
195. In an earlier work, William Greider focused on the declining sense of public involvement in all levels of government, especially the federal level. One of his principal themes is that "special interests" have so taken over the legislative and regulatory agenda in Washington, D.C. that voters no longer feel empowered to make any difference. See WILLIAM GREIDER, WHO WILL TELL THE PEOPLE? THE BETRAYAL OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY (1991). More recently, the phrase "social capital" has gained currency, with its idea that civic involvement is essential to a thriving body politic. See, e.g., ROBERT PUTNAM, BOWLING ALONE: THE COLLAPSE AND REVIVAL OF AMERICAN COMMUNITY (2000). Francis Fukuyama, reviewing Putnam's book, noted that Americans were in fewer bowling leagues and that Putnam took the "lonely bowlers" as "symbols of a distrustful
196. In an earlier work, William Greider focused on the declining sense of public involvement in all levels of government, especially the federal level. One of his principal themes is that "special interests" have so taken over the legislative and regulatory agenda in Washington, D.C. that voters no longer feel empowered to make any difference. See WILLIAM GREIDER, WHO WILL TELL THE PEOPLE? THE BETRAYAL OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY (1991). More recently, the phrase "social capital" has gained currency, with its idea that civic involvement is essential to a thriving body politic. See, e.g., ROBERT PUTNAM, BOWLING ALONE: THE COLLAPSE AND REVIVAL OF AMERICAN COMMUNITY (2000). Francis Fukuyama, reviewing Putnam's book, noted that Americans were in fewer bowling leagues and that Putnam took the "lonely bowlers" as "symbols of a distrustful